[vsnet-chat 4844] Support of catalogues

[Seiichi Yoshida <comet@aerith.net>]

MISAO Project Announce Mail (September 19, 2001)

Hello. I am Seiichi Yoshida working on the MISAO project.

The latest version of the PIXY System 2, 2001 September 18 version, is
released. In this version, many astronomical catalogs are supported.

The latest PIXY System 2 can read 27 sorts of catalog files, and the
130 sorts of celestial objects are supported. The "Supported
Catalogues" page summarizes the supported catalogs.

    http://vsnet.aerith.net/misao/pixy/catalog.html

Most of the catalogs are available via WWW. This page has links to
those catalog files so that people can download them.

Various kinds of catalogs are supported, not only star catalogs such
as the GSC 1.1, USNO-A2.0, Tycho-2 Catalogue, etc., but also variable
stars like the GCVS and MisV, clusters and nebulae like the NGC
2000.0, infrared objects like the IRAS and MSX5C, and so on. The PIXY
System 2 uses a star catalog to examine an image at first. But after
once examined, the system can identify detected stars with any type
of catalog. So the user can research what kinds of stars in the image
field comprehensively. 

Especially, the following file:

    Taichi Kato's Catalog of Variable Stars, etc., for VSNET
    http://ftp.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/pub/vsnet/others/newvar.cat

compiled mainly by Taichi Kato, Kyoto University, is a useful catalog
that records many remarkable objects. Most of the recent new variable
stars reported from observers in the world are also covered by the
file. New variable stars discovered by amateurs, Kesao Takamizawa,
Katsumi Haseda, Klaus Bernhard, Akira Takao, etc., and of course the
MISAO Project new variable stars are also recorded in that file. Those
stars need magnitude observations in order to reveal the characters. 
Besides variable stars, there are many objects in that file, that need
observations. 

The PIXY System 2 has a function to register those catalogs into the
database and construct a catalog database. In the MISAO Project
activity, all supported catalogs, except for star catalogs such as GSC
1.1, USNO-A2.0, Tycho-2 Catalogue, etc., are registered into the
database so that we can identify detected stars from the offered
images with the stars in the database and accumulate the magnitude
data. The total number of stars registered in the database is about
1.3 million now. The magnitude observations of them will be gradually
reported to the public.

A sample image and the examination result XML file, after identified
with the catalog database, are enclosed in the PIXY System 2 package. 
When you open the sample XML file in the "Review" mode and create the
identification overview chart, you will see there are two sorts of
variable stars, GCVS and MisV, and two sorts of infrared objects, IRAS
and MSX5C, in the image field. There are some stars detected from the
image, for each sort. And there is a planetary nebula PN G010.4+04.5
is in the field too, but too faint to be detected. 

    http://vsnet.aerith.net/misao/PR/announce/20010919.gif

As this sample shows, there are some, or some dozens of, remarkable
objects in an amateur's image field in common. You can research what
objects exist in your image using the PIXY System 2. If you offer your
image to the MISAO Project, we will measure the magnitude of them and
report to the public, then the data will contribute to astronomy. 

Taichi Kato, and so many people kindly gave me information and advice
on catalogs. I appreciate to everyone. 

P.S.
The past MISAO project announce mails are available at:
  http://vsnet.aerith.net/misao/

--
Seiichi Yoshida
comet@aerith.net
http://vsnet.aerith.net/

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